Proposed County Curfew Derailed By Commission

NEWS IN BRIEF

October 27, 1999

KISSIMMEE - A teen curfew law has been derailed for now by the Osceola County Commission.

Warren Shephard of the Juvenile Justice Council has asked commissioners whether they would begin putting together an ordinance that would keep young people off county streets during school hours and late at night. The law would be patterned after Kissimmee's teen curfew.

Shephard said the city's law has resulted in about 600 stops by officers since its inception in August 1996. Of those, 256 were issued warnings, and 33 were issued written violations and given community service or fines.

A typical complaint about teenagers, he said, is ``probably not really a law enforcement issue or a crime, but it is affecting the quality of life of some of our citizens.''

Shephard could not say how youth crime rates were affected directly by Kissimmee's curfew because several prevention programs have been operating at the same time.

Commissioner Mary Jane Arrington and other commissioners questioned the need for the law. Parents, she and other commissioners said, should be in charge of their children, not law enforcement.

``I think curfews are drastic measures that should take place in drastic times where you have rioting and unrest,'' she said, comparing the curfew to laws that would take drivers licenses away from the elderly.

``I don't take my personal freedoms lightly,'' she said. ``And I don't think government should randomly take them away.''

Commissioners said they would wait to hear from the sheriff and wait to see whether the St. Cloud City Council would pass a curfew ordinance in the coming weeks.